The Northumberland Arms, Brentford

The Northumberland Arms is a surprisingly small, single room pub on the main road through Brentford, that traded as O'Brien's for a number of years before reverting back to its original name. The place has clearly undergone a somewhat upmarket refurbishment in recent times, presenting an L shaped room with modern floorboards throughout and a basic servery in the rear right corner. The bar has a wood panelled counter front which has been painted in a pastel shade to match many of the walls, but retains a nice dark wood top and bar back. As well as the muted paint scheme, there are sections of bare brick wall to both the left and right and these have been decorated with various eye catching bits of modern art including Picasso and Mondrian reproductions. High table and stool seating fills the smaller space to the right of the entrance, with some nice window sill seats along the front wall and regular tables and chairs down the left hand side, which extends a little way to the rear, past the servery. Several plain mirrors round out the decor and help to give the impression of a little more space, whilst a door at the back leads to a rear patio garden, should the need arise for some actual extra room. A TV in the front corner was showing a music channel with the sound on, which was highly annoying when the channel cut to adverts which also end up getting played through the room. Food was available although I failed to see a menu, but several people were eating and it looked like it was pretty good quality. Four hand pumps were offering a choice of Wytchwood Dryneck, Sharps Doom Bar, Caledonian Cold Comfort and a real cider. A very surly barman poured me a pint of the Cold Comfort which was a passable enough pint in reasonable shape, if not particularly memorable. There was a modest crowd in on a Saturday afternoon, but it seemed like a reasonable cross-section of customers. This was a nice enough place to stop for a quick drink but I couldn't help but think it was better suited to diners and had perhaps lost some of its 'pubiness' in the latest refit. This is a shame, as it seems like it would make quite a nice, intimate and cosy boozer but is instead a bit cold and lacking character. I'd still consider popping in for a pint in the future, but for a longer session it won't be troubling the nearby Magpie and Crown anytime soon.

I see from the previous reviewer's posting that the intention in making this place look like a glorified coffee bar is to discourage the hoi polloi. Well, that didn't work as it didn't discourage me and a chum from dropping in to see what it's like. The only other punter in on Wednesday morning was a chap in leathers standing at the bar with his crash helmet on one of the stools. The abstract painting are still there on the left hand wall. I'm afraid I just don't get modern art - at least the modern art in this place that consisted of paintings of different coloured squares and rectangles. One of them had "Mondrian" written underneath it, which didn't help me at all. Anyway, this place had something I hadn't seen before in a pub; little dishes on all the tables containing coffee beans. I'm not sure what you were supposed to do with them. On the plus side, however, it did have three ales on - Doom Bar, plus a couple from Downton Brewery, as well as Lilleys Apple & Pear Cider. We had Downton Beer of the Monkey, which as it happened was in good shape. I saw menus on some of the IKEA style tables on the left, but I didn't look at them. The beer was good, but it didn't really feel like I was in a pub. It's not really my kind of place.

Good but maybe not the best of Brentfords pubs.Always an interesting selection of real ales.good reasonable priced menu as well.they have Sky so handy if you want to catch a football match.Music at the weekends.